RR hired a new young team for this year under their new coach, Rahul Dravid. RR released all their senior veterans, Jos Buttler, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Ravichandran Ashwin, and retained youngsters like Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, and Shimron Hetmyer.
This move was considered Rahul Dravid’s impact, as he always prefers young players and has a lot of connection with them since he worked for the U-19 Indian team for a long time. It looked like a plan for the future in the auction, but it didn’t work well for them this season.
Riyan Parag’s form
Riyan Parag, who made his debut for the franchise in 2019, was backed by the team despite poor performance over the years. He paid them back by performing exceptionally well in the last season. He scored 573 runs in 14 matches, including 4 half-centuries, at an average of 52 and a strike rate of 149. He smashed 33 sixes in last season.
But this team is struggling to make runs, and it is affecting the run flow in the middle order for them. He is yet to score a half-century in this season. He has scored 234 runs in 9 matches so far, at an average of 29. He is getting starts but couldn’t convert them into a big score.
RR had spent 14 crores to retain him. He is playing his 7th IPL season and he is no more a youngster. Since he is leading the side in the absence of Sanju Samson, he should show some maturity in his batting, should not throw his wicket.
Sanju not being fully fit and now injured, is a big setback for RR. They are missing his experience in batting and on the field as captain as well.
Finishing struggles for RR
RR has spent 25 crores on their finishers, Dhruv Jurel (14 crores) and Shimron Hetmyer (11 crores). But their form has been a great disappointment this season. They bottled three consecutive chases from the winning position. They failed to chase 9 off 6 vs DC, failed to chase 9 off 6 vs LSG, and failed to chase 18 off 12 vs RR.
Shimron Hetmyer was retained ahead of someone like Jos Buttler, and he is not even giving half the performance that him. He doesn’t have great numbers as a finisher in the IPL. He never won any match single-handedly from the jaws of opponents. It creates doubt on what basis he has been retained for such a huge price.
They might have thought about the future aspect, but still spending such a huge amount on both these players is not a great strategy. They are seriously missing the services of Jos Buttler, who carried the franchise on his shoulders for the past 7 years.
Lack of batting depth
With Sanju Samson being ruled out, they don’t even have options to play an extra batter in their squad. They are trying the young kid Vaibhav Suryavanshi at the top, and he has done a great job so far by showing intent in the powerplay. But their main concern is their middle order and finishers.
They can try Krunal Rathore for the upcoming matches and discover some new talent for the upcoming seasons. They can also use Wanindu Hasaranga at the middle order along with Nitish Rana to tackle the spinners. They have tried in one match against KKR, and he fell for Varun’s spin in that match.
Hasaranga coming up in the order will increase the batting depth of the team. He has the reputation of playing good against spin and of course, as a Sri Lankan player, we can expect this from him. Shubam Dubey played well against RCB in the last match, he can be backed and promoted up the order to give him some game time to him, which can unleash his true potential as a batter.
RR don’t even have a mathematical realistic chance of making it to playoffs with 7 defeats from 9 matches and are placed at 9th position. RR now would be eyeing to avoid a wooden spoon and play for their pride. Questions would be raised importantly over why in first place Jos Buttler was not retained given he was backbone of batting line up.
Also Read: RCB vs RR: 3 Reasons For RR’s Defeat Against RCB